Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

Althea Meer

Althea Meer worked as an intern with the Office of Public Affairs at the museum in New York during the summer of 2017. In the fall she began her junior year at New York University, where she's studying English, Spanish, and web programming.

Members of the staff of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York hold a welcoming ceremony for a kayak frame built in the traditional Yup'ik way at the Qayanek Qayak Preservation Center in Kwigillingok, Alaska. A testament to the ingenuity and innovation of the Native cultures of the Arctic, the kayak frame will become a teaching exhibit when the New York museum's imagiNATIONS Activity Center opens this May. (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian)

Long journey: A traditional kayak frame comes to New York

In May 2018, when the museum in New York opens its new imagiNATIONS Activity Center (iAC), one highlight will be a traditional Yup’ik kayak frame—15 feet of historically correct white spruce driftwood—made at the Qayanek Qayak Preservation Center in Kwigillingok, Alaska. The New York iAC will offer young museum-goers hands-on experiences that make vivid the origins and outcomes of Native innovation, including the genius of kayak-building.

Native artists sharing experiences and their thoughts on design and inspiration. From left: Fashion and textile historian Regan Loggans, fashion designer Patricia Michaels, fashion designer Niio Perkins, fashion designer and multimedia artist Loren Aragon, artist and apparel designer Jared Yazzie, fashion model Jade Willoughby, and editorial hair stylist Amy Farid.

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